This document discusses the importance of open access research publishing in developing countries. It notes that while open access has the potential to more widely disseminate research and further development goals, current policies and metrics focus too heavily on international citations and prestige, neglecting local relevance. Green open access repositories make articles accessible but do not ensure development impact. Alternative models are emerging, including open access journals and scholarly presses that are more aligned with developing world issues, as well as new ways of evaluating research like altmetrics. Overall open access represents an opportunity to transform scholarly communication systems and better serve development needs, but policies and mindsets would need to change.

1. The importance of Open
Access research publishing in
developing countries
Eve Gray
Stellenbosch University
Open Access Seminar 2011

2. A publisher’s perspective

3. publishing = strategy

4. at a digital
crossroads...offering new
opportunities for easy,
fast, global knowledge
distribution
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5. in an African context in which
conventional scholarly
publishing is of marginal
viability

6. How can we leverage digital potential and
OA to deliver the wider opportunities
we seek?
Some rights reserved by Sean MacEntee

7. ‘How could the application of knowledge end
poverty and hunger in Africa? How could higher
education empower women and promote gender
equity? How can knowledge be considered in the
African context to address child mortality and
improve maternal health?’
Nahas Angula, Namibian Prime Minister, UNESCO 29th Conference on
Higher Education, 2009
Photo: coda Damien du Toit http://www.flickr.com/photos/coda/

8. Our universities, in particular, should be directing their
research focus to address the development and
social needs of our communities. The impact of
their research should be measured by how much
difference it makes to the needs of our communities,
rather than by just how many international citations
researchers receive in their publications.
Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education and Training, South Africa, at the UNESCO World Conference
on Higher Education in 2010

9. Open access has the
potential to open up
research publication for
wider development
impact
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10. and yet this does not seem to
be delivering the impact the
policymakers seek
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11. We live on a huge continent

12. but have a tiny share of
scientific output

13. Science Research - 2001
http://www.worldmapper.org
2006 SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan).

14. but what do we mean by
‘output’?

15. The dual mission of African universities
What the university wants is profile in the ISI
and other indexes in the interests of enhancing its
reputation and prestige. But the university must be
relevant to its context in Botswana and in the
region. It therefore needs a double pronged
approach - enhancing local relevance and at
the same time seeking to increase the quality of the
journals and other outputs.
Prof I N Mazonde, Research Office, University of Botswana, 2011

16. one kind of ‘output’
dominates research
publishing policy ...

17. and one dominant
metric

19. driven by the search for
enhanced prestige and
competitiveness
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20. ‘green route’ repositories
make published articles
accessible

21. but the quest for local
relevance remains at the
periphery

22. and ‘the article’ becomes
equated with ‘scholarly
publication’

23. The result of this
policy focus is tunnel
vision...
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24. ...which pays attention
to only a small segment
of the publishing
ecosystem..

25. the tip of the iceberg -
formal publishing

26. international journal companies
dominate

27. NAGPS: A Summary of the FRPAA and Open Access Debate (2010)
http://www.nagps.org/files/FRPAA%20and%20open%20access_0.pdf

28. but mainstream publishers are
using OA material and social
media to transform their
offerings

30. university presses constrained
by a lingering (but erroneous)
belief that university presses
can be profitable businesses

32. but...

33. O A journals are growing and
becoming mainstream

35. more sympathetic to
developing country
issues

36. In South Africa, government-
supported journal OA

37. ...raising quality through
national initiatives...

38. OA scholarly presses -
the HSRC Press

40. Academy of Science
programme for scholarly
books (open access) supported
by DoHET

41. Could open access online
scholarly book publishing
revive the publication of
serious long-form scholarship?

42. public funding would be
needed

43. Below the waterline

44. informal, development-focused
policy papers,research reports
and publications have been OA
for decades

47. open data links to national
programmes

49. ‘translations’ of research for
community and national
development

51. Does ‘grey literature’
need to be redefined?

52. but most tellingly

53. radical new journal
models emerge

56. Mark Patterson, CERNOAI17 2011

57. Mark Patterson, CERN OAI17 2011

58. the journal article is becoming
part of the research continuum

59. a ‘hub’ rather than a final
stand-alone outcome

60. and finally, new measures are
being developed to evaluate a
wider range os scholarship

61. do we need to get on board
the ‘altmetrics’ bandwagon?

63. Would it be in our interest to
leapfrog to the cutting edge of
the 21st century?

64. REFERENCES
Altmetrics: A Manifesto (2011) http://altmetrics.org/manifesto/
Timmo Hannay (Nature Publishing), Publishing Open Content (video) 2008. Produced by Belsizen3ws.
http://www.youtube.com/user/belsizenw3
M Laakso, P Welling, H Bukvova, L Nyman, B-C Björk B-C, et al. (2011) The Development of Open
Access Journal Publishing from 1993 to 2009. PLoS ONE 6(6): e20961.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.002096 http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0020961
Glenn S McGuigan and Robert D Russell, The Business of Academic Publishing: A Strategic Analysis
of the Academic Journal Publishing Industry and its Impact on the Future of Scholarly Publishing.
Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship 9 (3) 2008
http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v09n03/mcguigan_g01.html
Mark Patterson, Re-engineering the functions of journals. CERN OAI17 Conference, Geneva 22-24
June 2011.